Hog to raccoon to Buenavista

08 April 2010 | Buenavista Cay, Jumentos

Beth / E15-18, 80 at 8:30 am!

Once we left Hog Cay we found ourselves moving at a rapid pace back up the chain of islands. Our initial thought had been to to move slowly, but "weather" looms and it seemed better to make one day visits.

We had the engine on for a total of about 10 minutes and enjoyed a beautiful sail the rest of the 2 hour trip. Raccoon is beautiful! We stopped at a lovely beach, immediately dinghied ashore to snorkel and swim and explore. There is a sweet little cove with a sand bar curving around the point. We snorkeled all through the area but didn't see any live conch so we contented ourselves with looking at fish and enjoying the exercise in crystal clear warm water. There were some brilliant blue fish that we haven't seen in other areas, along with the usual assortment of other pretty ones. (How can I possibly be so dismissive of these gorgeous fish?!)

We used our fast motor to zoom up to the north end of the cay to see the blue hole before racing back to clean ourselves up and join Reflection and Dot's Way at Happy Hour hosted by Joanne and Frank on Fantasy Island. It was a treat to meet these folks who have travelled in Guatamala and Belize - planned destinations for us. Joanne's pictures and enthusiastic recommendations have whetted our appetites for it even more than before.

We'd love to have stayed here a few more days, but we had a window for travelling from Buenavista Cay north on Friday so we moved up there on Thursday morning. That was another lovely long beach where we could have spent more time. On the way down, we'd hidden out from a front at the bottom end of Buenavista, between it and Low Water Harbour Cay - a perfect little hideout by the way - but at the time we were immobile and couldn't go exploring. Together with Dot's Way and Reflection, we walked across the cay to the beach on the far side but found no shells or sea beans. back on the west side, we walked the long beach from south to north, thoroughly exercising our calf muscles. The sandy beach was either soft and flat or hard and sloped depending on where we walked. We chatted with Avery who is staying with his father, Edward, at the house on the beach. They have a little pen of goats and sheep, some chickens clucking around, and bonfires going in the back yard. Avery told us they are trying to clear some land and grow peanuts, and that one day he'd like to have a little bar there for cruisers. Another Pete's Pub maybe? Edward was off fishing, and at dusk we watched him row back from his fishing grounds. That was a long row and he is an older man!

Once again we watched some beautiful fish and lovely blue fan coral on the coral head near us. I saw a shark resting under a ledge and I fluttered myself backwards pretty quickly. It was probably a nurse shark, and it was not a bit interested in me so I decided to leave it that way!

We didn't get to see Double Breasted Cay or Johnson's Cay or to linger at these two beautiful places - but we'll be back!

This is our departure point from the Jumentos, and from here on we'll be headed mainly north so we celebrated with a long-saved bottle of iced cider wine from Quebec and reflected fondly on our time here as we watched our final Jumentos sunset in the cockpit.

Beth and Jim have spent the last several winters sailing southern waters on s/v Madcap. They love Halifax in the summer, but plan to spend the winters exploring warmer places - currently the Guatemala, Belize, Honduras area.

Extra:

The Madcap crew left Ottawa in 2007 to go sailing in the Bahamas. After a highly successful year, they returned to Canada, settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in the fall of 2009 they left to do it again! Journey #3 (2010/11) took them back to the Bahamas and then on to Cuba for several weeks [...]

before laying the boat up in Fernandina Beach, FL for the summer.
For the 2011/12 season, they sailed down through the Florida Keys, across to Mexico and on to Belize and Guatemala. Madcap resided in the Rio Dulce under the care of Casey Brooks for the next few summers and they explored Guatemala and Belize during the winter of 2012/13, and the Bay Islands of Honduras in 2013/14. They were back onboard in January 2015 for another season in Rio Dulce and Belize. Madcap is spending the summer of 2015 at Tortugal Marina in Rio Dulce, Guatemala while Beth and Jim enjoy their land base in Nova Scotia.
They set off again in November 2015 for the 2015/16 season.
Contact info: Jim - captainmadcap@hotmail.com and Beth - madcapmum@hotmail.com